Filed under: Marines, Medal of Honor | Tags: Beer, Leroy Petry, Lucas Peerman, Medal of Honor, Miguel Estrada, Taking Chance
Lucas Peerman, who is Leroy Petry’s cousin and the digital editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News, had written one of the articles I’d used in researching for my blog entry on SFC Petry. He has also been blogging about the experience on his own blog, A Week in Washington. When Miguel Estrada posted on comment on my blog entry that he had some songs he’d like to give to SFC Petry on a CD, I passed along his contact information to Lucas. Lucas contacted Miguel and, if you read Lucas’s blog entry, you can learn a bit about Migeul and download his songs. It’s a great tribute to our troops by a patriot who adopted this land, just as all of our own ancestors did over the years.
If you’ve seen “Taking Chance“, with Kevin Bacon, I think you’ll find that though Lucas has several marvelous entries in his blog, but tops on the list must be the story of a Marine who felt honored just to share a beer with Leroy.
Filed under: Marines, Veterans, WWII | Tags: Climate change, Oradour-sur-Glane, Technology
One of today’s Freshly Pressed blogs also mentions the use of iPads in learning. I was especially interested at the mention of using them to help out in galleries. I found a few other WWII related blog entries as well:
- It turns out that we could avoid climate change if we just had more WWII bombers making contrails, as it turns out that high-aviation traffic areas in WWII had a temperature of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) cooler.
- Someone researching ghost towns wandered across Oradour-sur-Glane and found it as chilling as I did. Joanna also posted her thoughts, comparing the impact of visiting the ghost to her experience as a guide at a concentration and some powerful photos on the chilling experience of visiting Oradour-sur-Glane.
- As we all know, the internet is an amazing thing. Andrew Ronzine had blogged about his grandmother, mentioning his WWII-veteran grandfather only in passing. The daughter of one of grandpa Ronzine’s buddies was working on making a book of his wartime journals and…. found Andrew. Now, both the daughter and the grandson know a little more about their Marines.
Filed under: Tours, Understanding Battles | Tags: Battle App, Bull Run, Civil War, GPS, Manassass, Technology
I’ve probably told people hundreds of times, you have to walk the ground to understand a battle. I also tell people, pull some money out of your pocket and pay for a guide. Simply walking the field helps, but nothing helps you understand as well as somebody standing there, pointing things out to you, explaining the tactics, the strategy and the details of what happened. Preferably, that guide has maps, photos and a handful of eyewitness accounts to help explain things to you.
Six months ago, Eric Wittenburg got himself a Barnes & Noble Nook, exposing some of us to the possibilities for electronics helping historians in transit or in the field and now, the Civil War Trust has just released it’s third “Battle App” covering First Manassass (aka First Battle of Bull Run). It gives someone with an iPhone or iPad an electronic guide to the battlefield.
Like its predecessors, which explore the battles of Gettysburg and Fredericksburg, the new Battle App includes video segments from top historians, period and modern imagery, and detailed topographical maps that help bring the battlefield to life. Improved onboard battle animations and customizable troop displays allow one to stand where the two armies stood and to learn how their attacks and counterattacks unfolded. Featuring both primary source material and the commentary of respected historians, the “Bull Run Battle App” offers the convenience of a self-guided tour and the expertise of an expert-led exploration.
Unfortunately, it’s only out for Apple products thus far. Of course, that does leave the door open for Android development. When I was last in Normandy, Dale Booth and I discussed adding some kind of tool like this for his tours. I have been toying with the idea of developing applications on tablets and especially with this kind of an application in Normandy. There would be so much more that could be done if Dale, Paul or Allan could hand each client (or even just a couple of them) a tablet that they could use during the tour to look at the various maps and photos that they currently display on laminated sheets. In some cases, we could even add videos of veterans speaking while you stand on the spot where they fought.
Now, in my mind, this is only an additional tool for understanding a battle, just as taking a book or a map into the field will help, it can never take the place of an actual guide. No matter how much information we add to any of the tools, it can never replace what you get from the guide. Try remembering how much you could learn just from your textbooks and how much you learned from your teachers. The guide is a teacher – one who takes you to where the historical events happened and then, through the use of tools, helps you understand.
I think the potential is enormous and it energizes me to continue expanding my technical skills so that I can combine my passion for learning and teaching history with those skills.
Filed under: Medal of Honor | Tags: 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Afghanistan, Leroy Petry, Medal of Honor, Pointe du Hoc
When you walk through the bunkers at Pointe du Hoc, or look down the cliffs, or notice how intact the bunkers are after thousands of bombs and 67 years, you wonder how it could ever have been taken. Colonel Rudder led 225 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion up the cliffs and into the bunkers. Where do we find men such as these?
In Sante Fe, New Mexico, Steven Drysdale and his cousin, Leroy Petry, were inseperable. As boys do, they fought each other occasionally, but “Everybody liked Leroy. He was always smiling, laughing, bonding with people.” Petry wanted to join the Army since he was seven years old. After Steven joined the Army and became a Ranger, Leroy followed suit.
On Memorial Day, 2008, near Paktia, Afghanistan, Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry, of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and another Ranger advanced into the courtyard of a compound in Afghanistan and came under fire. During the fight, after Petry had already been shot through both legs, a grenade was tossed near Petry and his comrades. He moved to it and picked it up to toss it away, thinking, “It was probably going to kill all three of us. I had time to visually see the hand grenade. And I figure it’s got about a four-and-half second fuse, depending on how long it has been in the elements and the weather and everything and how long the pin has been pulled. I figure if you have time to see it you have time to kick it, throw it, just get it out there.”
Petry was wrong about the time on the fuse, but right in his instincts. Unfortunately, when the grenade exploded, it amputated his right hand. He put a tourniquet on himself, reported his wound and continued to communicate until they had eliminated the opposition.
Petry has reenlisted and plans a long career in the Army, helping other servicemembers who have lostt limbs readapt to society.
I guess we find these men on playgrounds in New Mexico, in the streets of New York, the hills of Tennessee or just about anywhere you search in this great country of ours.
Filed under: Battle of the Bulge, Weekend Wanderings, WWII | Tags: Anne Frank, Battle of the Bulge, Field Artillery, Hemingway, Museum
As the weather gets hot, one can always sit in a cool air-conditioned room and revel in the vast expanse of knowledge that sits out there on the Internet, begging to be found. Here are a few tibdits I found this week that interested me.
- Barbara Whitaker blogged about her father-in-law’s servicein the 276th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, seeing action during the Bulge, crossing the Rhine and within Germany.
Barb's Father-in-Law's M7
- Beanandgone is a humorous blog by a young Australian woman who loves her coffee and her travels. She was recently in Berlin and notes some of the funny things as well as some of the horrifying ones.
- As a historian, I tend to visit a fair number of museums when I travel and it sounds like we all ought to visit the National World War II Museum. The even have an annual Family Overnight (yes, it was last night, so you missed it this year!) The capstone, however, appears to be the Victory Theatre’s “Beyond the Boundaries”.
- Courtesy of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, you can also move around inside The Secret Annex and experience The Diary of Anne Frank in a completely different way – virtually in 3D, with stories and videos. Hat tip to musingmk for these two.
- I finished reading Wukovitz’ book on Boyington today and thought a fair amount about Afroxander’s blog entry on Hemingway’s suicide. In reading Hemingway as a young man, I wanted to be him. To have grand adventures, to cheat death, to drink “manly” drinks and to truly “sieze the day”. With Boyington, his alcoholism was fueled by doubt and discomfort. With Hemingway, I wonder if it was all just from boredom. Perhaps he just kept searching for elusive happiness in bigger and bolder things until he finally despaired. I’ll be honest, if a bit brutal, but the Hemingway who zipped around France during WWII strikes me as a comical figure, trying to act the part of a war hero while others actually fought it. Kind of like John Wayne’s and Humphrey Bogart’s experience on USO Tours – the tough guys were the ones in the audience, not the ones on stage, but at least Wayne and Bogart realized that.
Filed under: Officers, Veterans, WWII | Tags: Harley-Davidson, Hemingway, Obituaries
On occasion, I read the obituaries in the Washington Post and I always find someone interesting. The sad thing is, if they’re commemorated there, I’ll never get to meet them. Today’s obituary for Reginald Augustine made me wish that I had met him.
Augustine served as a Captain in the US Army at the end of World War II, racing around France and Germany, securing both scientists and nuclear materials. While searching a warehouse near Toulouse in southern France, Augustine found 31 tons that made the Geiger counter spike. He participated in Operation Epsilon, escorting several German physicists seized near Stuttgart to American territory. After the war, he had a career in operations for CIA, including time in Germany and a post in Saigon in 1968.
What makes Augustine truly interesting is his adventurous youth. After he garduated from Northwestern with a degree in Latin (minoring in German and studying Greek), he spent 16 months touring Europe on a Harley. That included ‘a Nazi party rally in Heidelberg that he later described as akin to a “Fourth of July” celebration with scarlet swastika banners and leather-booted storm troopers.’ While Augustine may not have been able to talk about his post-war career, I’m guessing there were a barrel of stories about traveling footloose and fancy-free in mid-1930s Europe. One wonders if he crossed paths with Hemingway.
Filed under: Normandy, Veterans, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Canadians, Commuting, French language, James Garfield, Juno Beach, Navy SEAL, Pimsleur method, Stilettos, Wine
Sometimes, getting away for the holidays ends up being more trouble than it’s worth. Besides, if you stay in Washington, you get some of the best 4th of July fireworks anywhere. Back in 1881, President Garfield headed to the train station to get out of DC on Saturday, July 2nd, but it didn’t work out very well for him at all.
- Just short of four months of his inauguration, President James Garfield (BG, USV) was gunned down on Saturday, 2 July 1881 at Penn Station in Washington, DC. Penn Station stood at 6th & B Streeet, Northwest, which is now 6th & Constitution and is the location of the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art. Garfield died on 19 September. Historians rightly place much blame on his early treatment, during which doctors probed his wound with their unsterilized fingers in an attempt to find the bullet.
- If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like for a fashion-conscious Manhattanite to experience a dose of Navy SEAL PT, check out the Thirty Vintage Chick’s What Stilettos, ‘Hump Day’ & $20 Have in Common. Make sure you also check out Cooking with the Troops, where she is directing everyone to head with donations.
- If you’re interested in wine advice, especially if you live in Ireland, read Grapes of Sloth. My favorite post right now is Wine Merchant Can’t Really Think of suitable wine for Father’s Day Gift.
- Sharing my interest in wine and history is Canadian Karl Kliparchuk, whose Wine With Karl at MyWinePal includes a good post on his recent visit to Juno Beach.
- I have been studying French during my daily commute (I went from a 15-foot commute while working from home to drivng 62 miles each, so it was a sudden and dramatic change.) I recommend the Pimsleur course very highly. I’ve got the first 16 lessons on CD, but will be adding more via MP3 shortly. I really gets you right into speaking French as you would while there. I had tried just using books, which didn’t work. I had tried Rosetta Stone, which frustrated Melissa because she was sure she would never say “le chat sur la table” in conversation with a Frenchman. You can buy Mp3 lessons as few as 5 at a time, which is a week’s worth. If you’re smart you WILL study one lesson EVERY day, as it builds up fast.
- While reading a review of Saving Private Ryan, I thought of a quote from JFK’s inaugural: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Happy birthday, America.
I am always interested in learning more about France. In particular, about small towns in France. In my wanderings, I came across a woman who had visited Charles De Gaulle’s adopted home, Colombey-les-deux-Eglises. Colombey is south west from Paris, near Chaumont.
De Gaulle is often thought of as so full of Gallic pride as to be arrogant. I find it interesting that he would choose such a small village and simply try to blend in as a normal villager. This is reinforced when one considers his gravesite, which is simple and humble.
When De Gaulle came ashore on the 14th of June, it rankled the Allies. There was great uncertainty about De Gaulle and, I suspect, Allied leadership wanted someone they could control more easily than De Gaulle. Actually, as French leaders had learned in the 1930s and the early days of the war, no one could control De Gaulle, except De Gaulle. By August, De Gaulle had moved from being only the leader of the Free French Forces to being the Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (gouvernement provisoire de la République française or GPRF). Seeing him march down the Champs Élysées on film on the 26th, while there were still snipers around (apparently right in Hotel de Crillon) with hordes of his countrymen around is simply stirring.
Perhaps it is fitting that a man often seen as the height of Gallic arrogance turns out to be just another small town boy.
We're not lost, Sergeant, We're in ... France 